20140312

wrath of the mailing list manager

Why don't people know how to remove themselves from mailing lists? In every mailing list I've ever managed, there's been an easy way for members to unsubscribe themselves, and I've made that information available in every instance. But still, people email the entire list asking to be taken off, even immediately after I've sent out the how-to-remove-yourself instructions. Are people just lazy or incapable of reading? Are they spoiled by always having other people remove them? Is it harder to unsubscribe yourself than I think it is?

I make it a point to keep my mailing list involvement minimal; I'm an expert unsubscriber. Before Gmail instituted it's filtered inbox tabs for "social," "offers," etc., I had already unsubscribed from almost every offer or social media email, and filtered the remainder to automatically skip my inbox.

I guess it just bums me out that I try to keep my own email inbox clutter-free, and I do my best to allow others to do the same, both by informing them of how to unsubscribe and by not sending unnecessary emails. I try to make as little work as possible for myself, and then other people send me unnecessary emails in abundance, related to mailing lists and otherwise. People make work for me by not only cluttering my email, but by requesting that I do something for them that they can easily do themselves.